About “American Wedding”

The climax of Frank Ocean’s mixtape/album nostalgia, ULTRA. This song’s sample of “Hotel California” created a major controversy when the Eagles demanded to be paid for every time Ocean performed “American Wedding” live.

What was the controversy around this song?

“American Wedding” is heavily (if not completely) over a beat consistent with the 1977 hit “Hotel California” by the Eagles. Since nostalgia, ULTRA was officially considered a mixtape and released for free via Tumblr, it wasn’t illegal for Frank Ocean to do it. However, due to the profile of the project, it was played all over the internet, and he would perform it live, so the band “threatened to sue if I perform it again,” Ocean explained on tumblr. “I think that’s fuckin' awesome …” Again, since it was released for free, Ocean legally respected the copyright, but that didn’t change much for the Eagles or the media. The new vision of “Hotel California”, as Lonny intended for it to be, was actually complimented by most contemporary and rock critics.